January 26, 2007

Bonnie Valle lived the last seven years of her life with a towel the size of a large hand towel lodged behind her left lung. The towel was discovered upon autopsy and had been left there during a 1995 surgery for emphysema.

Valle complained of chest pains for seven years after her surgery, saying she felt there was something in her body pressing on her lungs.

The hospital claimed the woman suffered no ill health effects from the towel and the judge dismissed claims against the doctor. The family settled with the hospital for an undisclosed sum.

This unaccountable doctor made the following statement in 2004 after the media reported on the case:

"She lived seven years ... which is certainly as well as one would have expected her to survive given her severe emphysema and poor pulmonary function and overall condition."

What exactly would have made this doctor accountable? Leaving a beach towel in the woman's body?

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